William h



o 0 e) W. H. DOLMAN.

FIRE r3001" BUILDING. No. 286,401. Patented Oct. 9, 1883.

r I V @ZZW yaw/1 gfiaww NITED 'IATES YVILLIAM H. 'DOLMAN, OF, ST. HELEN, OREGON.

FlRE PRO'OF BUILDING.

$PECIFIOATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 286,401, dated October 9, 18 83.

I application filed January 22, 1883. (No model.) I i To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HIGKMAN' DOLMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Helen, Columbia county, and State of Oregon, have invented a new and useful Fire-Damper, bywhich I preventthe destruction by fire of houses, buildings, and structures, and of rafters, joists, timbers, posts, caps, and sills used in their construction, and according to my knowledge and belief the same has The object of my invention is, by means of sheet-iron and ashes or any fine pulverized dry uninfla-mmable earth, to dampen and smother the fire; to preventfire from ascending above or descending below the room or story in which it originated; to prevent the fire from a burning roof from descending to the attic or to any lower room or story, and to prevent fire that has started in a cellar from ascending to any room or story above. I attain these objects and results by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which represents a section of a fioor, the ends of the joists, and the ceiling of abuilding.

Similar letters refer to similar parts.

The joists E E having been set in place in the wall of the building, I securely nail or fasten to the bottom or. under edge sheet-iron c c. This sheet-iron may vary from No. 24 to 30, American gage. One sheet should lap on another from three-fourths of an inch to one inch. All the joists E E must be thus protected on the bottom or under edge, forming a ceiling of sheet-iron. I then deposit on this sheet-iron e e, and between the joists E E, two to four inches in depth of fine sifted dry ashes or earth G G, banking the ashes orearth well up against the sides of the joists E E. I then nail strips of board a a to the side of the joists one and ahalf inch to three inches below the upper edge or top of the joists. Ithen securely nail sheet-iron b 1) onto the strips a a. I then commence laying the floor A, and as the laying progresses I entirely fill the space F F between the fioor Aand the sheet-iron?) bwith ashes or earth, taking care that thereis no hollow space under the floor Ain which the air can circulate, and that no chips of wood or any other combustible material is mixed with the ashes or earth. If the ceiling B is to be plastered, I nail strips (1 d on the sheet-iron c c firmly to the joists E E, to which lath can be nailed to receive the plastering. This leaves a small space, a; x, the object of which is to prevent the sheet-iron e efrom resting on the lath andplastering, and leaving a space for the mortar to key. A dead-air space, K K, between the ashes or earth G G and the sheet iron I) b, is left to prevent dampness. In the event of fire breaking out in the room or story of which A represents the floor, usually not all of the fioor A will be consumed, as the ashes or earth FF will smother and dampen the under side of the flooring-boards to the extent of preventing rapid and total burning, and in no case is it possible for a fire on floor A to reach and burn more than a small part of the upper edge or top of joists E E, while the ashes or earth F F is held in place, as the ashes or earth E F will smother and dampen the fire there and put it out. Should a fire break out in the room or story of which B is the ceiling, it is highly probable that the lath and plastering and the strips (1 (1 would be destroyed; but it is not possible that any ordinary fire starting on that story could heat the ashes or earth G G sufliciently hot to fire the joists The action of the ashes or earth G G is to dampen the heat that rises to sheetiron e e, and to smother the joists E E and pre vent their taking fire. At the place where the joists E E enter the wall the entire space K K should be filled with the ashes or earth G G,

thus preventing the joists E E taking fire from or through the walls that might beheated from a neighboring confiagration.

The opening Y is shown as closed by the trap-door I), resting on a shoulder in sheetiron Z, filled with ashes or earth H. To prevent the wood-work fromburning at any opening in the fioor or roof, and to stop the draft or fire being carried up or down, I nail sheet iron Z to the side of the wood-work, as shown at joist E, leaving a space, H, of two or three inches, between the sheet-iron Z and the joist E, which I fill with ashes or earth. It is yery 5 important that all the wood-work at all the openings should be thus protected. The trapdoor D is made of sheet-iron, is of a thickness of two to four inches, and the hollow space J filled with ashes or earth. This trapdoor D should be made to open and close freely, and when up should be so held bya cotton or other cord made from some inflammable material, and should never be fastened up by any metal fastening.

I 5 I am aware that prior to my invention iron joists, brick, tiles, and mortar have been used to construct fire-proof floors.

I am also aware that sheetmetal arched plates have been inserted between the joists of a floor in the same plane, near the upper faces of the joists, a part of said plates proj ecting up above the upper faces of the joists to form, on the upper face of each joist, a chamber having three sides, and that the space between the top oi the arched plates and the flooring, and also the chambers formed on the top of each joist, have beenfilled in with plaster or other fire-proof material, and the flooring nailed tothe joists through the fire-proof material in the chambers described, and I therefore lay no claim to such construction, my invention being confined to the peculiar construction pointed out in the claim. What I do claim as my invention, and-desire to secure by Letters Patent, is v The combination, with the joists E, each provided with the strips a a d, of the continuous sheet-iron ceiling e, plates 6, continuous between two joists, fire-proof material F G, and laths and plastering B, substantially as shown and described.

WlhhlAll HICKMAN DOLlllAN.

Vitnesses B. F. GILTNER, Gno. W. MCBRIDE. 

